The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-05-07

SUGAR SHIPMENTS THROUGH CANADA
AND THE TREATY.

Our special article on the sugar prob
lem in Thursdays issue touched upon a
point that deserves further considera-
ton. We refer to the reference to the
shipment of several thousand tons of
Island sugar to the Western States via
the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and to
the probable unfavorable bearing this
would have upon the Hawaiian Treaty.
This is point of much gravity, and one
it would be well to give due prominence
to. Everyone here knows how strong
an effort was made to defeat the Treaty
by Southern planters and Eastern refin-
ers when Hawaiian sugar began to COM
pete with their own produce in the
valley of the Mississippi and the South
But that was a natural expansion of bus
mess, although it must be confessed that
it did afford the opponents of the Treaty
an argument of some force against its
continuance. Much more will the new
departure of the American Refinery af-
ford them such an argument. In this
latter case the competition is not by the
free use of American lines of transporta-
ton, but by the use of foreign line par
alleling the American roads, which
affords facilities for transportation by
sea and land at lower rates than the
home railroads schedule freight. Or in
brief, the American Refinery by this
contract with the Canadian Pacific Rail-
road Company puts itself in a position
of hostility to the American trans-centi-
mental railroads, and challenges their
active opposition to renewal. of the
Treaty with this country, from which
alone that refinery draws its supplies of
sugar.
We need not impress upon Ha 4aiian
planters the supreme gravity of this dec
laration of hostility by the American
Refinery Company. Many of them have
expressed regret that Hawaii took part
in the New Orleans and Louisville exhibit
tons, because these drew attention to the
superior pToductiveness of our soil, as if
all the sugar world would not ascertain
the fact every season from the crop out
put OF the Islands. Intelligence SO SEN
sitive as this, however, will instantly
comprehend, from what has been stated,
how seriously it's interests have been
compromised in a powerful quarter
where these had formerly met only sup
port and encouragement. Not a few
banded themselves together to "destroy
monopoly" to ''open new markets." to
''free the industries of the country from
intolerabIe oppression and so forth
yet in little more than a tWelve-month
from the declaration of independence"
the entire programme has broken down,
and with the impulse, begotten of de-
spair, the controlling spirit. of Hawaiian
emancipation is striking at the very life
spring OF Hawaiian prosperity-its treaty
of Reciprocity with the United States.
This. is freeing the industries OF the
country with a vengeance; and should
the Treaty be annulled, the blame will
rest wholly and exclusively upon the
men who went into this blind and ruin
Gus competition with the American trans
portatiOn system.
The importance of this movement by
the American Refinery to the American
railroads, will be understood when. we
state that during 1886 the Central and
Southern Pacific roads carried forty-seven
million pounds of San Francisco sugar to
the Missouri and Mississippi Valleys in
competition with Eastern sugar and it
was sold there. The Interstate Commerce
law went into operation on April 4th,
when the long haul schedule war neces-
sarily advanced to local rates, and thus
closed the railroads to the shipment of
sugar, wool, fruit and wine to points east
OF Ogden. The Canadian Pacific charged !
$4.91 per hundred for first-class freight
from New York to the Pacific Coast, on
April 4th, but on the 18th April it re-
duced the rate to $1.9f Special rates
were likewise given on wool and sugar.
The American Refinery made contract |
with the Canadian Pacific to ship sugar
to st. Paul at 80 cents per hundred. |
As previously stated by the ADvER-
User the American Refinery gained |
nothing by this move, because the
seventy-fve day suspension of the
f'long haul'' section of the Interstate !